Oxford, University ofEnglish autonomous institution of higher learning at Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, one of the world’s great universities. It lies along the Upper upper course of the River Thames (called by Oxonians the Isis), 50 miles (80 km) north-northwest of London.

Sketchy evidence indicates that schools existed at Oxford by the early 12th century. By the end of that century, a university was well established, perhaps resulting from the barring of English students from the University of Paris about 1167. Oxford was modeled on the University of Paris, with initial faculties of theology, law, medicine, and the liberal arts.

In the 13th century the university gained added strength, particularly in theology, with the establishment of several religious orders, principally Dominicans and Franciscans, in the town of Oxford. The university had no buildings in its early years; lectures were given in hired halls or churches. The various colleges of Oxford were originally merely endowed boardinghouses for impoverished scholars. They were intended primarily for masters or bachelors of arts who needed financial assistance to enable them to continue study for a higher degree. The earliest of these colleges, University College, was founded in 1249. Balliol College was founded about 1263, and Merton College in 1264.

During the early history of Oxford, its reputation was based on theology and the liberal arts. But it also gave more-serious treatment to the physical sciences than did the University of Paris: Roger Bacon, after leaving Paris, conducted his scientific experiments and lectured at Oxford from 1247 to 1257. Bacon was one of several influential Franciscans at the university during the 13th and 14th centuries. Among the others were Duns Scotus and William of Ockham. John Wycliffe (c.1330–84) spent most of his life as a resident Oxford doctor.

Beginning in the 13th century, the university was strengthened by charters from the crown, but the religious foundations in Oxford town were suppressed during the Protestant Reformation. In 1571 an act of Parliament led to the incorporation of the university. The university’s statutes were codified by its chancellor, Archbishop William Laud, in 1636. In the early 16th century, professorships began to be endowed, and . And in the latter part of the 17th century, interest in scientific studies increased substantially. During the Renaissance, Desiderius Erasmus carried the new learning to Oxford, and such scholars as William Grocyn, John Colet, and Sir Thomas More enhanced the university’s reputation. Since that time Oxford has traditionally held the highest reputation for scholarship and instruction in the classics, theology, and political science.

In the 19th century the university’s enrollment and its professorial staff were greatly expanded. The first women’s college at Oxford, Lady Margaret Hall, was founded in 1878, and women were first admitted to full membership in the university in 1920. In the 20th century Oxford’s curriculum was modernized. Science came to be taken much more seriously and professionally, and many new faculties were added, including ones for modern languages, political science, and economics. Postgraduate studies also expanded greatly in the 20th century.

Oxford houses two renowned scholarly institutions, the Bodleian Library and the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, as well as the Museum of the History of Science (established 1924). The Oxford University Press, established in 1478, is one of the largest and most prestigious university publishers in the world.

Oxford has been associated with many of the greatest names in British history, from John Wesley and Cardinal Wolsey to Oscar Wilde and Sir Richard Burton , to and Cecil Rhodes and Sir Walter Raleigh. The astronomer Edmond Halley studied at Oxford, and the physicist Robert Boyle performed his most important research there. Prime ministers who studied at Oxford include William Pitt the Elder, George Canning, Sir Robert Peel, William Gladstone, Lord Salisbury, H.H. Asquith, Clement Atlee, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Edward Heath, Sir Harold Wilson, and Margaret Thatcher. Among the many notable writers associated with the university are Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien; the latter two were members of the Inklings, an informal Oxford literary group in the mid-20th century.